1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air distribution conduit made from flexible material of the type designed to be removably attached at predetermined locations within a defined space so as to regulate the distribution of conditioned air throughout the defined space by a conduit capable of being either installed or removed through detachable connection through a wall surface within the defined space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the past many years the transportation industry has grown proportionally with the rapidly increasing population and the demand of this increased population for various items. Food products as well as other similar type goods such as flowers, etc., encounter particular problems irrespective of the relative distances these products have to be transported. Certain perishable items such as food, etc., naturally have to be refrigerated and/or subjected to a constant flow of conditioned, refrigerated air to maintain their freshness and increase the length of time before which they become spoiled or useless.
While refrigerated or air conditioned vehicles are, of course, very well-known in the transportation industry there is a recognized problem with such vehicles in accomplishing efficient and effective air distribution throughout the defined space of the truck or railway car type vehicle. Conventionally, the air conditioned vehicle bodies included one or more vents built into the vehicle body itself and located at one removable or fixed location in the vehicle body. This obviously resulted in a lack of efficient and effective air distribution throughout the entire length of the body which in turn made it more difficult to refrigerate or allow proper exposure for all products or goods located at various locations throughout the vehicle body.
In order to overcome this problem certain vehicle bodies have built therein rigid, permanent or fixed air conduits wherein the conduits included one or more vents in order to define more efficient or effective air distribution throughout the defined space of the vehicle body. However, in structuring such air conduit it was found that such conduits were subjected to an unusual amount of damage especially in vehicles where mass loading took place through forklift trucks, etc. Commonly the operators of such fork-lift or like loading vehicles would inadvertently collide with such fixed conduits causing their damage and possible inoperativeness without extensive repair and maintenance.
Accordingly, it can readily be seen that there is a need in the transportation industry for an effective air distribution assembly which can be readily adapted and structured for use in a vehicle so as to deliver cooled or conditioned air throughout the defined space of the vehicle. Such air distribution assembly should include conduit structures capable of being easily mounted and/or detached and which overcome the inherent danger or problem of damage due to mass vehicle loading of goods within the defined space of the vehicle.
Such an air distribution assembly should be capable of easy installation and removal, low maintenance costs while at the same time being relatively inexpensive to construct and initially purchase.